Finding Time To Write When Travelling

Posted on April 14, 2017

When you are travelling there always seems to be so little time. You want to make the most of where you are and what there is to see. At times it even looks like it’s hard to find enough time to sleep. That is before even considering trying to find a chance to write.

I must say that it is a challenge that I have fought with constantly when I travel. At times I have been able to work on little tricks to find some time. While at other points it just seemed to be all but impossible to overcome. But rest assured I do have a couple of tips that I hope may help you to try and narrow it down.

Write On The Bus

I cannot even start to remember how many times that I have been sitting there on a tour bus writing. There are quite a lot of tours that seem great, but in practice leave you with quite a lot of dead time.

Consider a day trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. It is a fantastic tour and one that was well worth doing. But the return journey from The Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, is basically over 3 hours of driving. There is little of interest because the interesting things were pointed out on the way out. Otherwise it is just a whole lot of desert.

The same was the case on a bus tour from Melbourne to Phillip Island in Australia. The tour is great, but the main feature is seeing the Little Penguins, come up the beach at night. Which leaves you with a two hour drive back to Melbourne in the dark with very little of interest to see.

It may not always be possible to do writing you can publish in this sort of setting. But it can get you a long way towards having something written in time that otherwise might have been wasted. Except for a lack of internet there are quite likely a number of posts that I would have published from my seat on a tour bus.

Multi-purpose Your Time

In a very similar vein to writing while on the tour bus, look at other times when you are travelling where there might be dead time.

One that I have often found is when eating meals. Because I often travel alone, I also tend to eat alone a lot when I am travelling. So depending on where I am eating, if it seems appropriate I make use of the time. That is the time waiting for a meal or a drink to be served.

The main thing that I find when I am travelling is that it is rare that I have to think deeply about specifically what I am writing. I mean there is a great adventure going on all around me and generally that is what I am writing to share. So even just five minutes might be all I need to catch the written story up to where I am in the day.

Don’t Move Around So Much

There have been some rather distinct differences in how I have found time to write at different points in my travels. They seem to align quite specifically with the amount of time that I spend in the one place.

When I am booked to stay in a location for a longer period, such as spending 10 days in the one city. I find in these longer stretches I find the time to write much easier than when I might book to be somewhere for just 3 nights.

The more time that you have in a city to explore the more likely you will not being trying to rush through everything. So where you can I suggest you allow a little more time in a city. It has more benefits than just giving you time to write, it lets you truly enjoy exploring the city as well.

Keep A Notebook

One of my biggest challenges when writing is trying to remember names, places, and most importantly spelling’s. Keeping a small notebook with you and taking notes often can help with the writing process.

If I am trying to write from memory my writing is slow and takes much longer. Where as if I am writing from notes, I can often write up to two or three times faster. Writing faster definitely means that you need find less time to dedicate to writing and more time to spend exploring.

Even if you don’t use a notebook even consider using the note app on your phone. It does not have to be a big long detailed note, just enough to give you a trigger to write about that specific part of the day.

Schedule Time

The last tip for today is consider scheduling time within you travel with writing. In some ways this can be a double edged in how it might work, depending if you are travelling to share the experience or to enjoy your holiday.

If you are travelling to enjoy your vacation, maybe writing along the way is not the best idea. In this case keeping that notebook and taking plenty of notes might be a better idea. Then you can leave the writing until you get home and not create to much pressure for yourself.

On the other hand, if you are travelling more to share the experience, scheduling time could definitely help. Whether you set aside a small amount of time each day that is dedicated to writing. Or maybe even setting aside a whole day at certain points throughout the trip.

The benefit if you are scheduling time is that you will know where you can fit other activities around the writing.

Enjoy the Experience

Whether you are pushing to write or not, travelling should be about enjoying the experience primarily. There is not a lot of benefit or point to creating stress for yourself just because you cannot fit writing into your day.

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